Standard Bearers
Missouri is one of four holdouts from the coalition to draft national education standards.
I’m glad Missouri hasn’t signed on. Beware of states bearing standards. No state by itself has particularly good standards, so the chances are slim that all of them together will come up with something better. And bad standards could serve to solidify the near-monopolistic state of the education market. After standards are adopted, textbook companies that go along with them are rewarded and competing curricula are crowded out.
I fear my rejoicing may be short-lived, though, because when Arne Duncan includes the standards in his “Race to the Tax Dollars” — I mean, “Race to the Top” — scheme, Missouri will have little choice but to go along.
There is one reason for optimism: Standards on paper don’t necessarily affect what happens in a classroom. Within a single state, some districts teach beyond the standards, and others lag far behind. That pattern will continue to hold if standards are adopted at the national level.
For more on national standards, and to learn why they’re like unicorns, see Neal McCluskey’s post at Cato@Liberty.
University content professors should have an opportunity to review, and the power to veto, any proposed standards. Otherwise remediation rates for incoming freshmen across the nation will continue to soar.
Students should graduate secondary school prepared for college. This fact must be integrated throughout the K-12 system. It is impractical to expect high schools to make up for many previously “lost years” in four years.
As Neal said, “what [some] governors have agreed to so far is just to draft national standards, not to adopt them”
And you’re right, “Within a single state, some districts teach beyond the standards, and others lag far behind. That pattern will continue to hold if standards are adopted at the national level.”
The reason that some districts and teachers teach beyond standards is because we must ensure that our students are prepared for college. However, when mediocre standards exist, it makes that responsibility even more difficult because too much time may be spent during early grades preparing for high stakes, low-level tests, which can detract from instruction of more rigorous content.
This is why I believe that research mathematicians must lead the development of internationally bench-marked, rigorous math standards.
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Comment by Concerned — June 3, 2009 @ 9:34 a.m.